


Crossings

by Andraste



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-03-06
Updated: 2000-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-09 09:19:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andraste/pseuds/Andraste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I saw him yesterday.  We crossed the road together, in fact.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crossings

I saw him yesterday. We crossed the road together, in fact.

Stuck waiting for the light to change from red to green, I spent a short eternity studying him surreptitiously; with that furtive sideways glance I have often received from other people. I didn't learn anything new.

I already know all that there is to know about him, after all. That his name is Michael Cook. That he was born in London. That he went on holiday to Los Angeles in his mid-twenties, and never returned to England after he met and married a local girl. That they never had children, and divorced some time ago. That he came to Philadelphia last year to start his life over again.

I know a lot of other things. The brand of breakfast cereal he eats, his favourite colour, the names of his two cats. I know all about the rather boring job he's acquired in a bank. About the noisy neighbours whose wall he thumps on every Sunday morning, early, the only show of temper in his well-regulated little life.

He took a woman he met at the laundry out for dinner last week. I'm not sure weather to hope he asks her out again or not.

I also know what he doesn't know - that there are any number of reasons why he didn't have to stand there, tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for the lights to change.

Perhaps he noticed me watching him after all.

"Excuse me, sir," he said with his new accent, "but have we met before?"

I looked up into blue eyes that I had taken the fire from, and knew that I was damned. But damned, I still hoped, in a good cause.

"Were you ever in Jerusalem?" I replied.

There was no shock of recognition, only a shake of the head and an unfamiliar smile.

"No," he said, "I was never in Jerusalem."

The light turned green.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I'd been thinking for some time about that whole "Xavier gives Magneto false memories of the Holocaust" plot line John Byrne was/is planning to use in his "X-Men: the Hidden Years" series, and what a spectacularly stupid suggestion it is.
> 
> Even ignoring the continuity problems such a retcon would create, it would imply that Charles was not only a sadist (which he is not) but also an idiot. If you want to stop someone from being a dangerous, psychotic super villain, why give them traumatic experiences? If Charles was going to alter Magneto's memories, why not introduce a dose of normality into his psyche instead? Unethical, but oh so tempting ...


End file.
